At one point in time this season, the Pleasant Ridge football team was 2-5 and facing a long offseason. However, coach Pat McCollim and his Rams never surrendered hope and Thursday were rewarded.

Ridge went to ACCHS and beat the Tigers 28-20, improving the squad’s overall mark to 4-5 but more importantly making its district record to 2-1. With the win, PR is officially playoff bound.

“It does say a lot about what these kids are made of,” McCollim said. “They believed in what we were telling them and didn’t quit working.”

Versus ACCHS, all the game’s scoring took place in the first half. Nick Holmes and Blake Graham gave the Rams 12 first quarter points thanks to runs of 72- and 16-yards. The Tigers answered with 13 points though, holding a one-point lead heading into the second period.

It was there that Pleasant Ridge captured an advantage that it never relinquished. First Holmes tossed a 13-yard pass to Nate Amos for a TD and then Graham found the endzone again, this time from 42-yards out. The Tigers only mustered one TD and after a scoreless second half, PR celebrated the postseason birth.

“The second half both defenses made adjustments and stiffened up,” McCollim said. “We had two big fourth down stops and then Nick Holmes intercepted a pass in the end zone in the final moments to keep them from tying the game up.”